Yamantaka // Sonic Titan: Dirt (Paper Bag) Review

Yamantaka // Sonic Titan

Dirt

Paper Bag

Mar 23, 2018 Web Exclusive By Austin Trunick

Canada’s premiere Noh-Wave prog act has never been accused of making simplistic music. Their latest record was conceived as the “soundtrack for an unreleased [Iroquois] and Buddhist themed Anime produced in 1987,” and to fully appreciate the album you must be of the right mind to accept that. It’s a post-apocalyptic concept record set on the same planet as their Polaris-nominated Uzu, the musical equivalent of Boris, Mad Max, Black Sabbath, Jin-Roh, and Heinlein’s Starship Troopers all rolled into one.

Yamantaka // Sonic Titan’s third LP follows significant lineup turnover; most notably, founding vocalist Ruby Kato Attwood is gone, with new singer Joanna Delos Reyes entering the fray. Dirt is far and away the band’s heaviest collection of tracks, a nearly beginning-to-end assault of pounding drums, acid-burned guitar solos, and furious keyboard delirium. There are respites in this psychedelic deluge, where the haze parts and the listener is given a moment of welcome catharsis. “Someplace,” with its peaceful melody and almost narcotic guitar work, prepares listeners for the main assault; “Yandere,” with its firm, poppy grip, snatches listeners from a propulsive crush of distortion. (“Tawine” gives listeners another such hook to hang on to for dear life.) Dirt may be the least accessible record from a band that never strived for accessibility in the first place. Yamantaka // Sonic Titan don’t make easy music, but they make it utterly unique. Listen to it loud. (www.ytstlabs.com)

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